Mortal Mirror

The young man looked at Li Ergou, a subtle expression flashing in his eyes, before he said, "You must be Li Ergou. I'm called Shitou (Stone)."

"Shitou, feels even more casual than my own name."

Li Ergou nodded and said, "Shitou, why are you in my room?"

Shitou spread his hands and said, "The master of the martial arts hall arranged it. I forgot to tell you, I'm also a sparring partner at this martial arts hall from now on, just like you. So, we're partners from now on, at least compared to them."

Li Ergou laughed. So, after all that, this guy was here to get beaten up just like him. Looking at his build, he was quite sturdy, but still not comparable to those professional sparring partners.

He was curious, could it be that this person was also an orphan like him?

With this thought, he carefully asked, "Why did you come to the martial arts hall to get beaten? Could it be that your parents died too?"

Shitou was slightly stunned, his expression changing slightly. "Your parents died! I came here to cultivate, okay?"

Li Ergou didn't care about his retort and said, "Of course my parents died, and they died a long time ago. I'm just an orphan. Are you stupid? You actually came here to cultivate. This is the first time I've heard of that."

Hearing Li Ergou's words, Shitou raised an eyebrow, a look of shame flashing in his eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't know your parents were gone."

Li Ergou waved his hand, saying indifferently, "What's the big deal? They died, so they died. Everyone has to die eventually. Dying early is an early release."

This was the first time Shitou had heard such crazy talk. He asked, puzzled, "Everyone wants to yearn for longevity. Don't you desire it?"

"Desire? Desire my ass! If you lived like me, you probably wouldn't want to live either. What's so good about longevity? Living too long would just turn you into an old monster.

I just want to escape this world and gain freedom. Besides filling my stomach, is there anything better than freedom in this world?"

"Freedom!" Shitou was very puzzled. "Don't you have freedom? I want to hear you talk about your reasons for coming here."

Li Ergou didn't really like talking to others about his affairs, but since they would be living together, it didn't seem right to not say anything when asked. So, he had no choice but to tell Shitou about his experiences.

Shitou was dumbfounded as he listened. When he heard that the landlady had hung him from the rafters and beat him for three days and three nights, he angrily threw his clothes, appearing to be a man of passion. When Li Ergou said he wanted to take the martial arts exam, he sighed and patted him on the shoulder, comforting him, "Perhaps the imperial court isn't the only path. You can also seek out a sect."

"Sect? I don't even know which way the sect's gate faces. It's okay, I'll work hard." Li Ergou's positive and optimistic attitude made Shitou envious.

He finally nodded and said, "Okay, I wish you success."

Li Ergou had a gentle temperament, and fortunately, Shitou wasn't too difficult to get along with. However, Li Ergou could always sense that this person had some arrogance in his bones; he just didn't know why this guy was pretending so well.

Naturally, he wouldn't analyze these useless things. They were just sleeping in the same room. If he treated him well, he would definitely treat him sincerely. If he disliked him, it didn't matter; he was used to it.

As night fell, Shitou called out to him and went out. He curiously asked him where he was going.

Unexpectedly, this kid told him he was going to practice martial arts.

Li Ergou thought to himself, 'Is this guy a martial arts fanatic?' Those sparring partners had once said that some people practiced martial arts to the point of madness, cultivating day and night like lunatics. Such people either went crazy later or became grandmaster-level figures.

Li Ergou didn't know what to say, so he could only shake his head and let him go.

Shitou's departure allowed Li Ergou to cultivate in peace. At this moment, he was determined that, just as Wu the Divine had said, if three to five days didn't work, then three to five years. He refused to believe it wouldn't work.

With this thought, he began to meditate, but as soon as he sat down, distracting thoughts arose one after another. One moment he thought of the ancient well, another moment he thought of the golden fish, then he thought of Li Zheng'an, and in the blink of an eye, he thought of roast whole lamb.

Cold sweat streamed down his forehead, and his heart trembled.

Just as he was about to be driven mad by this thought, something moved in his chest, and a golden light flashed out, then flew onto his forehead with a whoosh.

If Li Ergou opened his eyes at this moment, he would definitely see that this golden light was actually the scale that the golden fish had given him.

Li Ergou, who was overwhelmed with distracting thoughts, suddenly felt something cold fall on his forehead. Immediately, he felt a coolness in his head, and countless distracting thoughts retreated like a tide.

His heart actually entered a state of emptiness, as if entering a void space.

Li Ergou felt as if he had turned into a ball of light. He floated in the sky, but could only illuminate an area of about ten feet around him. Everything around him was darkness. As his thoughts moved, countless light strands, like thin threads, wandered out from the surrounding darkness and merged into his ball of light.

As countless light strands wandered over, he found that his body was getting bigger and bigger, so big that the entire space couldn't contain him. He felt like he was about to explode.

Finally, with a loud bang, he suddenly opened his eyes. In that instant, he felt as if a mysterious space had appeared in his heart, and a wisp of martial arts true energy wandered within it.

He clearly remembered Wu the Divine saying that a martial artist's cultivated martial arts true energy was hidden in the divine palace in the heart. In that case, hadn't he achieved martial arts true energy?

He was puzzled as to why he was cultivating the divine path, but had achieved the martial path.

However, immediately afterwards, he was ecstatic. After all, no matter what path he had achieved, he had already taken a step beyond ordinary people. Therefore, he couldn't help but laugh loudly and say, "Daoist, I've succeeded! Hahaha... The divine palace has opened, and the martial path has been achieved. From now on, I can cultivate the martial path and go take the martial arts exam.

No, no, I'm getting corrupted by Wu the Divine. I've achieved the martial path instead of the divine path, so I shouldn't call myself Daoist, right? Should I call myself Martial Lord?"

With this thought, he suddenly felt something on his forehead. He reached out and took it down. It was actually a transparent fish scale. He widened his eyes and quickly rummaged through his chest. Soon, his hand stopped in place.

The golden fish scale was gone. Then, wasn't the one in front of him the golden fish scale? He couldn't help but recall just now, when distracting thoughts arose, a coolness suppressed them, and he achieved the martial path.

He understood. So that was it. His achievement of the martial path must be related to this fish scale. Seeing this scene, he understood that this golden fish scale was a genuine treasure.

With this thought, his eyes were filled with regret, and he cursed himself for being too careless. He should have copied the fish scale with the bronze mirror earlier. If he had done that, would there have been a double effect?

"..."

It was too late to regret. What's done is done. He could only secretly warn himself that in the future, no matter what he got, copying it with the bronze mirror at the first opportunity was the way to go.